Captain Picks Fantasy Football Game-week 32

Captain Picks Fantasy Football Game-week 32 – Fantasy Premier League 2015/16

Since I don’t have to write an MLS article this week because of their extended DGW schedule, I figured I may as well write up the weekly FPL captains article. Also, I wanted to get my turn on the capo’s doorknob done quickly so that I didn’t get stuck having to write the DGW version of this piece. That’s just too much pressure. And I feel that my tendencies in picking capos ranges from the obvious to the completely unexpected – and I honestly believe that if I were to write this all out for a DGW… people may think it was a satire instead of an actual advice column.

If you remember correctly, I picked Sergio Aguero and Enner Valencia as my top two picks for GW24. Neither was a bad pick on the whole, both scored 5 points and should have had a bit more against their competition. But I completely whiffed on picking either Kane or Barkley that week. My bad. Prior to that, I wrote up an article for GW17 that had Vardy, Mahrez and Lukaku as my top picks – and they scored a combined 29 points. But that same week I had to be some kind of fantasy hipster, and I also included Wijnaldum as a potential pick against Villa. He scored 2 points that round. What can I say folks? I call ‘em like I see ‘em, and I love to bet on the underdog pick every now and again. Expect more of that here today.

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#1) Sergio Aguero (away vs. BOU) – The most obvious pick
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Aguero is consistently the most obvious pick isn’t he? And we fall for it more often than we should. Full disclosure: I add Aguero to the top of this list because if I left him off of it, the Kun apologists would be in an uproar about how much ‘potential’ he has. And they’re right. Nobody besides Aguero could have pulled off the 5 goals in 65 minutes trick he did earlier in the year. And yet, the frustrating thing about Aguero is that his capacity for hitting his potential on a weekly basis (hell, a monthly basis) is almost nil. He’s been wildly inconsistent this year, and there just isn’t any way around that fact.

Only once this year has Aguero scored more than 10 points in a road fixture (12 points vs. WHU) – yet Aguero has 8 road fixtures in which he’s scored 2 or fewer points. But we hold onto that potential don’t we? We absolutely love his potential to do the magical, and so we continue to give him the armband expecting a fireworks show. And maybe he’s due. His last three road fixtures have been totals of 5, 2 and 2 points (SUN, LIV, NOR). Surely he can’t give us another blank on the road can he? But here’s the thing, those teams I just listed aren’t that great. Maybe Liverpool have a bit of talent now, but how much better are these teams than this week’s opponent in Bournemouth?

Plain and simple, Aguero tops my list this week because he really could do more than anybody else on the board if he chooses – but we’re betting on his potential this week, not his actual stats.

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#2) Harry Kane (away vs LIV) – The “never leave a heater” pick
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Do Euro folk have that saying, ‘never leave a heater’? If you don’t, it’s a gambling term that advises against walking away from a slot machine that just can’t miss. When you think about it, it’s probably a saying that the casino made up themselves to get people to give back their winnings – but that’s an entirely different story.

I think the term applies here rather nicely though. Who is the most in-form striker available right now? It has to be Harry Kane. Over his last three matches, Kane has 5 goals and an assist. But maybe more importantly, Tottenham look good as a whole right now – so their cohesive play probably makes Kane look like a better pick than Aguero. Aguero will probably have to snatch chances on his own, Kane has the benefit of great team play to give him a boost.

Also, as of the writing of this article, Kane is owned by 46.6% of all managers. And that’s saying a lot considering the fact that Tottenham don’t have any doubles on their horizon. If that many managers own Kane, he’s at least the safe pick to keep pace with the crowd.

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#3) Alexis Sanchez (home vs Watford) – The powderkeg pick
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I’m not an Arsenal fan at all, but I’ve seen enough of them to know a couple of things. The first thing is that they’ll always be more injured than any other team in the league – and just looking at their fantasy team sheet, eight of their players have red tabs indicating serious injuries. But the second thing I’ve come to know about Arsenal is that they always have the talent to be explosive, and they can really have strong stretches when they figure things out.

Look at last year for example, they won all six matches they played in March (all competitions) with a GD of +10. And in April of last year, they won three and drew a match with a GD of +5. They always have the ability to pull off runs like this, and it will be interesting to see if they can replicate their previous Spring this time around. And if something great is going to happen for them, Alexis will have to be at the centre of that push.

Alexis hasn’t done anything really spectacular in league play since late fall, but he seems to be turning that corner now that he’s fully back from injury. In the past three weeks he’s provided a goal and 2 assists – and those scores came against better competition than Watford. Now I know what you’re saying, “Watford have a better defence than you’re letting on.” And you’d be right. Watford have been fantastically consistent this year, only once have they given up more than 2 goals in a league match. But that one time that Watford was really hurt was a 0-3 loss… to Arsenal. And in that match, Sanchez had himself a goal and 2 BP. So here’s to thinking history repeats itself.

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#4) Gylfi Sigurdsson (away vs Stoke) – The pick that makes you question my credentials
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I know what you’re thinking, of all of the players I could put here, I put down Siggy? This is kind of my thing, folks. I don’t put this pick here as a joke, either. There’s some method to the madness.

Let’s start with the obvious, Sigurdsson’s last three scores are 10, 9 and 5. And as a part of those scores, he’s done enough to earn himself 2 BP on two occasions. So we can at least agree that he’s on some kind of form, right? Now the piece that makes this all look a bit suspect is the away fixture to Stoke, and I totally get it. So let’s start out with the fact that Stoke have just lost their keeper, Butland, for the foreseeable future. This match will be the first start for whichever of their backups they choose to go with. But even with Butland in, Stoke haven’t been performing well in defence over the last ten rounds anyway.

Stoke have only kept two clean sheets over the last ten rounds – and on three occasions they gave up 3 goals. Add that wrinkle of poor form to the uncertainty of having a new keeper in the mix, and you start to feel a bit better about a pick like Siggy. And then when you consider that Shawcross and Pieters are still coming back from injury and won’t be fully match fit for a while… you have a perfect storm brewing which will leave Stoke open to an attacker in form.

Look, we all know that you’re going to pick Aguero or Kane (or maybe a Leicester player) as your capo. But if you want to shoot up the saloon and dance on the tables, Sigurdsson might be your guy.

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Thanks for reading Captain Picks Fantasy Football Game-week 32. This article was written by Guy Sanchez

Follow @Guy_M_Sanchez

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